What tax rules apply if I work from both home and a client’s site?

Introduction: Why “hybrid” working creates tax questions

Working partly from home and partly at a client’s site is now a normal pattern for many contractors, consultants, freelancers, and even employees on client-facing projects. It can be a great setup for productivity and flexibility, but it also creates a set of tax questions that don’t always come up when you work in only one place. What counts as business travel versus ordinary commuting? Which home-working costs can you deduct? How do you handle meals, mileage, parking, or overnight stays? And what changes if you’re paid through payroll, through your own limited company, or as a self-employed sole trader?

The key point is that tax rules are usually built around purpose and place: why you incurred the cost, and where you were when you incurred it. When your week is split between a home office and a client site, those “why” and “where” questions can become blurred, especially if your home is also your main base of operations. This article explains the common tax principles that apply to working from both home and a client’s site, focusing on how to think about travel, home-working costs, recordkeeping, and the risks that can arise when claims are made without a clear rationale.

Start by identifying your work status

Before looking at specific tax rules, you need to identify how you’re treated for tax purposes. Broadly, people who work at a client site fall into one of these categories:

Employee: You’re employed by a company and paid via payroll. Your employer may reimburse your expenses, and the tax treatment often depends on whether that reimbursement is taxed or exempt.

Self-employed (sole trader/partner): You run your own business personally, invoice clients directly, and report profits on a self-employment basis. Business expenses are generally deductible if they are incurred wholly and exclusively for business purposes, subject to specific rules.

Company owner-director / contractor through a limited company: Your company contracts with the client and you take income as salary and/or dividends. The company can generally deduct business expenses it incurs, and you may be reimbursed for allowable expenses you personally pay on the company’s behalf.

These categories matter because expense rules can differ. For example, an employee usually has stricter limits on what can be claimed personally, while a self-employed person may have more scope to claim certain costs (provided they meet the relevant tests). A company structure introduces another layer: what the company can deduct, what it can reimburse to you tax-free, and when a reimbursement becomes a taxable benefit.

Two big ideas that drive most outcomes

Although details vary by country and tax system, two big ideas tend to drive how tax rules apply when you work from both home and a client site:

1) Ordinary commuting is usually not deductible. Travel between home and a regular place of work is commonly treated as personal commuting. Even if you only go there a few days a week, it may still be considered ordinary commuting if that site is a regular or expected workplace.

2) Business travel is usually deductible. Travel that is undertaken for business reasons—such as visiting clients, travelling between workplaces, or going to a temporary work location—can often be deducted or reimbursed tax-free. The difficult part is deciding whether a client site is “temporary” or “regular,” and whether your home counts as a workplace for tax purposes.

Because hybrid working blends home and client-site working, your tax position often comes down to whether your home is accepted as a genuine work base, and whether the client site is treated as a temporary workplace or a permanent/regular one. The more ongoing and predictable your attendance at a client site becomes, the more likely that travel starts to look like commuting.

When is your home a workplace for tax purposes?

Many people work from home, but not every home-working arrangement automatically makes the home a “workplace” for the purpose of travel deductions. The tax system typically looks for evidence that your home is used as a real base of business operations, not just a convenient place to answer emails.

Indicators that your home is a work base may include:

• You have a defined workspace and do substantive work there (planning, writing, analysis, admin, calls, reporting, design, coding, billing, managing suppliers, and so on).

• Your work at home is required by the nature of your role or business, not just optional. For example, you keep business records there, store equipment there, or your home is the only place where certain tasks can be done effectively.

• Your home is where you start and end your workday in a business sense—such as checking schedules, preparing materials, or handling client communications—before heading out to client meetings.

• You do not have a separate office provided by an employer or client, or if you do, it is not your regular base.

Even if your home is accepted as a workplace, that doesn’t automatically make all travel to a client site deductible. Tax authorities often distinguish between travel from a work base to “temporary” sites (more likely deductible) versus travel to a “regular” site (more likely commuting). Still, establishing that you genuinely work from home can be helpful when you are travelling between different client locations, or when the pattern of work is intermittent and project-based.

Temporary versus regular client sites

One of the most important tax concepts for people who split time between home and a client site is whether the client site is temporary or regular. The labels might differ depending on your jurisdiction, but the idea is similar: if you’re attending a location for a limited purpose and limited period, travel may be treated as business travel. If you attend a location with ongoing expectation and regularity, travel may be treated as commuting.

A client site is more likely to be treated as regular when:

• You attend it frequently and predictably (for example, three days every week for a year).

• The engagement is long-term and looks like your main place of work.

• The client site is essentially where the job is performed, and home-working is secondary.

A client site is more likely to be treated as temporary when:

• The assignment is short or clearly project-based, with a defined end date.

• You attend it irregularly (for example, a few days per month for meetings or on-site work).

• You have multiple client sites, and none is the dominant long-term base.

• The nature of the work requires you to move from site to site, with home used for planning and admin.

These distinctions affect not just travel costs, but also whether you can claim related subsistence (meals), accommodation, and incidental expenses when you are away from your normal base.

Travel expenses: commuting, business mileage, and public transport

Travel is usually the area where hybrid workers make the biggest (and riskiest) claims, because the money adds up quickly. The safest approach is to classify each trip according to its purpose and the nature of the destination.

Commuting versus business travel

If the client site is considered your regular workplace, travel from home to that site is typically treated as commuting, even if you do some work from home. Commuting is generally not deductible for employees and often not deductible for self-employed people either if the client site functions as their main base for that engagement.

If the client site is temporary (or if you are travelling between workplaces), travel may be deductible as business travel. Examples include:

• Home to a client site for a one-off meeting or a short assignment.

• Home to multiple client sites during a week, where no site is your regular base.

• Home office to a co-working space for occasional meetings, if the co-working space is not your regular base.

• Travel from one client site to another during the day.

The same trip can sometimes change character over time. For example, the first few visits to a client site might be treated as business travel if they are exploratory or ad hoc. But once it becomes your expected weekly location for a long period, it may be treated more like ordinary commuting. Keeping good notes about the purpose and pattern of travel is crucial when your schedule evolves.

Using your own vehicle

If you drive to a client site, you may be able to claim vehicle-related costs in one of two common ways:

1) Mileage method (simplified): You claim a set amount per business mile/kilometre. This method is straightforward and tends to require a mileage log with dates, destinations, and purpose. The rate is meant to cover fuel, wear and tear, and typical vehicle running costs.

2) Actual costs method: You claim a business proportion of actual expenses such as fuel, repairs, insurance, vehicle tax, lease costs, and depreciation (or capital allowances, depending on the tax system). This requires more documentation and careful apportionment between business and private use.

Whichever method you use, the foundational requirement is that the miles claimed are business miles rather than commuting miles. A mileage log (even a simple spreadsheet) is often the difference between a defensible claim and an easily challenged one.

Public transport, taxis, and rideshares

Costs of trains, buses, subways, taxis, and rideshares for business journeys are typically deductible or reimbursable when they relate to business travel rather than commuting. Receipts and proof of travel dates help, especially if you use apps where you can export trip summaries. If you mix personal and business travel on the same day, make a note explaining what each trip was for.

Parking, tolls, congestion charges, and similar costs

These costs often follow the nature of the journey. Parking at a client site during a business trip may be deductible, while parking connected to non-deductible commuting is usually treated the same way as the commuting itself (not deductible). If your jurisdiction has specific rules for congestion charges or low-emission zone fees, keep records and associate them with the relevant business trip.

Meals, subsistence, and overnight stays

Another frequent area of confusion is whether you can claim meals when you are working at a client site. Many people assume that if they buy lunch while away from home, it must be a business expense. Often, that is not the case.

In many tax systems, ordinary meals are considered personal living costs, even if you are at work. To be deductible, a meal typically needs to be part of qualifying business travel—such as being away from your normal base long enough that meals are a necessary incident of travel, or where the travel involves an overnight stay.

Day trips

If you make a day trip to a client site and return home the same day, the deductibility of meals depends on local rules and on whether the trip counts as business travel. Even where day-trip meals can be claimed, they are often limited to situations where the travel is to a temporary location or is otherwise outside ordinary commuting.

Overnight travel

When the client site is far enough away that you stay overnight, accommodation costs are more commonly deductible, again subject to the trip being business travel rather than ordinary commuting. Keep receipts for hotels, and document the business purpose. If you extend the trip for personal reasons (for example, staying over the weekend), you may need to split costs between business and personal elements.

Entertainment versus subsistence

Meals with clients can become a different category: entertainment. Many tax systems restrict or disallow deductions for client entertainment, or allow them only in specific circumstances. The rules can be strict, and recordkeeping expectations can be high (who attended, why, and what was discussed). If your work involves client lunches or hospitality, check the specific rules that apply to your situation and keep excellent records.

Home-working expenses: what you can usually claim

If you work from home part of the week, you may be able to claim some home-working expenses. The general concept is that you can deduct the additional costs of running your home that arise from business use, or in some cases a portion of household costs where a dedicated workspace is used.

Simplified home-working deductions

Many jurisdictions offer a simplified method for home-working deductions. This might be a flat-rate amount per week/month, or a fixed amount based on the number of hours worked from home. The advantage is simplicity: minimal calculations and easier compliance. The downside is that it might be less generous than a detailed apportionment, especially if your home-working costs are significant.

Actual-cost home-working deductions

When using actual costs, the usual approach is to calculate the business proportion of household expenses. Commonly claimed categories include:

• Heating and electricity (especially where you work from home for substantial hours).

• Water (less common but possible, depending on rules and work pattern).

• Broadband and phone (often apportioned between business and private use).

• Home insurance (sometimes partially allowable, depending on local rules).

• Rent or mortgage interest (often subject to strict rules; mortgage capital repayments are typically not deductible, while interest might be partially allowable in certain self-employment contexts).

• Council/local property taxes (sometimes partially allowable, depending on rules).

• Cleaning (possibly apportionable if it relates to your work area).

Not all costs are treated equally. Some systems focus on incremental costs (the extra you incur because you work from home), while others allow apportionment of certain running costs. It is common for tax authorities to scrutinize claims that look like personal living costs being repackaged as business expenses, so a reasonable method and clear documentation are important.

Apportionment methods: space and time

A typical apportionment method considers:

Space: What percentage of your home is used for business? This might be the size of your work area compared to the total floor area, or the number of rooms used for business compared to total rooms (excluding bathrooms and kitchens, depending on local practice).

Time: Is the space used exclusively for business, or also for personal use? If a room is used as a guest bedroom on weekends, for example, your allowable proportion may need to be reduced.

Exclusive business use can be a double-edged sword. In some jurisdictions, claiming that part of your home is used exclusively for business can have implications for other taxes (such as capital gains on sale of the home, or local property tax classifications). Even where it is allowed, it needs to be true in practice. Many people choose a more conservative approach, claiming a reasonable proportion of costs without asserting exclusive use.

Home office equipment and supplies

Separate from household running costs are business assets and consumables:

• Office supplies (paper, ink, stationery).

• Small tools and equipment used for work.

• Computer equipment, monitors, keyboards, chairs, and desks.

• Software subscriptions and cloud services.

These are often deductible if they are used for business. However, if there is mixed personal use, an apportionment may be needed. Larger items may be treated as capital assets rather than immediate expenses, depending on tax rules. Keep invoices and note the business rationale (for example, “monitor used for client reporting and design work”).

Internet and phone: apportionment in practice

Internet and mobile phone costs are common, and also commonly mishandled. If you have one household broadband line used by everyone in the home, claiming 100% of it as a business expense is hard to justify. A more defensible approach is to estimate business use as a percentage based on work hours or data usage and claim that portion. Alternatively, some people take out a separate business line or SIM to create a clean separation, which can simplify recordkeeping.

Client site costs: tools, PPE, and on-site requirements

When you work at a client site, you may incur costs that are specific to that environment:

• Personal protective equipment (PPE) or safety gear.

• Specialized tools required to perform the job.

• Site access cards or badges (if charged to you).

• Training or certifications required for entry or compliance.

These costs are often more clearly business-related than home bills because their purpose is specific to your work. Still, keep receipts and document why the cost was necessary. If the client reimburses you, the reimbursement’s tax treatment depends on whether it is treated as expense reimbursement or additional income.

Reimbursements and allowances: why the paper trail matters

How your expenses are paid can be just as important as what the expenses are. There is a big difference between:

• You pay the cost personally and claim a deduction.

• The client or employer reimburses you for the cost.

• You receive a flat allowance (for example, a “travel allowance” or “home-working stipend”).

Reimbursements are often tax-free only if they relate to allowable business expenses and are supported by records. Flat allowances can be taxable as income in many systems unless they meet specific exemption rules. If you receive an allowance and also claim deductions, you may need to reconcile the two so you are not effectively double-counting.

From a practical standpoint, keep a clear record of what was paid by you, what was reimbursed, and what was covered by allowances. If you operate through a company, make sure the expenses are recorded appropriately in the company’s accounts and that reimbursements follow whatever expense policy applies.

Multiple workplaces and “base of operations” logic

Hybrid working often involves more than one client. If you work from home and visit several different client sites, travel between them often looks more like business travel than commuting. The reasoning is that you are moving between workplaces as part of your business operations, rather than travelling to a single regular job location.

However, if one client site dominates your time for an extended period, tax authorities may view that site as your main workplace. That can cause travel from home to that site to be treated like commuting, even if you have occasional visits elsewhere. In practice, your pattern over time matters. Keep an eye on how your work is actually arranged, not just how you describe it.

What if you have a dedicated office as well as home?

If you rent an office or have access to a company office, the analysis changes. If you have an office that is treated as your main base, travel from home to that office is often commuting. Travel from the office to a client site may be business travel. If you sometimes work from home by choice, home-working deductions may be limited, and travel from home directly to a client site may not automatically become deductible if your normal base is elsewhere.

That said, some businesses intentionally treat home as the main base and use client sites and rented rooms as temporary workplaces. Consistency is important: your contractual arrangements, invoices, business address, marketing materials, and working practices should align with the story you are telling through your tax filings.

Common scenarios and how the tax logic often applies

Scenario 1: You’re an employee who works at home two days and at a client site three days every week

If the client site is effectively your regular place of work, travel from home to the client site is often treated as ordinary commuting and not deductible. Home-working costs might be partly covered by your employer via a home-working allowance or reimbursement, subject to local rules. If you purchase equipment specifically required for your job and your employer does not reimburse you, there may be limited relief depending on employee expense rules. Documentation from your employer about your work arrangement can be helpful.

Scenario 2: You’re a consultant with multiple clients and you visit each site intermittently

This pattern often fits more comfortably within business travel principles. Travel from your home office to different client sites can often be treated as business travel, especially if you do significant work at home and no single client site is your dominant long-term base. You may be able to claim mileage or public transport costs, and possibly subsistence when the travel qualifies. Home-working expenses may also be claimable using a simplified method or actual-cost apportionment.

Scenario 3: You take a long project at one client site but still do admin and reporting from home

This is where people often make mistakes. Even if you do important tasks at home, a long, regular attendance pattern at one client site can cause travel to be treated as commuting. If you continue to claim mileage as business travel without a defensible reason, you may face problems in an audit. A careful analysis of the expected duration and the nature of the client site is needed, and you may need to adjust your claims when the engagement becomes long-term.

Scenario 4: You work from home, but you go to the client site only for weekly meetings

Weekly meetings can still make a location “regular” depending on the tax rules in your jurisdiction, but this scenario often has more nuance. If the purpose is a periodic meeting and the majority of substantive work is done elsewhere, some systems treat that travel differently than daily commuting. The facts matter: frequency, necessity, and whether the client site is where the work is fundamentally carried out.

Recordkeeping: the habits that make claims defensible

Hybrid working creates lots of small, repeat expenses. Without a system, it becomes hard to separate business from personal costs, and hard to justify your tax position if questioned. Good recordkeeping is not about hoarding every scrap of paper; it’s about capturing the information that explains why an expense is business-related.

For travel

• Keep a mileage log (date, start location, destination, purpose, miles/kilometres).

• Keep receipts for parking, tolls, and public transport where available.

• Use calendar entries to corroborate why you travelled.

• If your pattern changes (a project extends longer than expected), note the change.

For home-working expenses

• Keep utility bills and broadband/phone bills.

• Keep notes on your apportionment method (space and time) and update it if your home layout or working pattern changes.

• Keep invoices for equipment and subscriptions.

• If you use a simplified method, keep evidence of the hours or weeks you worked from home if your system requires it.

For reimbursements

• Keep expense reports, reimbursement statements, and bank records.

• Distinguish between reimbursements for exact costs and flat-rate allowances.

Red flags that can trigger scrutiny

Most tax systems expect home-and-client-site workers to make reasonable, supportable claims. Problems tend to arise when claims look aggressive, inconsistent, or poorly documented. Common red flags include:

• Claiming daily travel to a long-term client site as business travel when it looks like commuting.

• Claiming 100% of home broadband, phone, or household utilities without evidence of business-only use.

• Claiming meals routinely without qualifying travel.

• Claiming large proportions of rent or mortgage costs without a credible apportionment basis.

• Mixing personal and business expenses in the same transaction and failing to split them.

• Having no mileage log and estimating business miles after the fact.

A conservative and well-documented approach is often more valuable than trying to maximize every possible deduction. If you do want to optimize, do it by improving structure and evidence—such as clearer contracts, separate business services (like a dedicated business phone line), and consistent tracking.

Special considerations for company owners and contractors

If you operate through a company, you need to think in two layers: what the company can deduct, and what can be reimbursed to you without becoming taxable income.

In many systems, the company can pay or reimburse business travel costs that you incur while performing your duties. But if the travel is deemed commuting, reimbursing it can create a taxable benefit. Similarly, the company might pay for home office equipment, but if the equipment is used personally, there may be benefit-in-kind or fringe benefit implications depending on local rules.

Practical tips in a company context include:

• Submit regular expense claims with supporting receipts and a brief business purpose note.

• Keep board minutes or internal policies that describe expense reimbursement rules, especially if there are multiple directors or employees.

• Keep clear separation between personal and business spending where possible.

• Be consistent in how you treat your home office: either as a legitimate base with documented business activities, or as incidental, with limited claims.

What about using a room exclusively as an office?

Using a room exclusively for business can strengthen the argument for home-working expenses, but it can also create other consequences in some jurisdictions. For example, claiming exclusive business use may affect whether part of your home is considered a business asset, which can influence taxes when you sell the property. Some people prefer a mixed-use approach (a workspace that is also used personally sometimes) to avoid complications, even if it reduces deductions. The “best” answer depends on the rules where you live and your long-term plans for the property.

Cross-border and multi-jurisdiction issues

If your home and your client site are in different tax jurisdictions (for example, different states, provinces, or countries), your situation can become more complex. You might trigger registration requirements, withholding, or the need to file in more than one place. Travel and home-working deductions are only part of the story; the bigger issue can be where your income is taxed and where you are considered to be working.

If you regularly cross borders for client-site work, it may be worth getting tailored advice, because the costs of getting it wrong can be much higher than a disputed mileage claim. Even within one country, working in different regions can create payroll or reporting obligations for employers and contractors.

How to approach your own situation step by step

If you want to apply these principles to your own working pattern, a structured approach helps:

Step 1: Map your week. Write down how many days you typically work from home and how many days you’re at a client site, including how long this has been happening and how long it is expected to continue.

Step 2: Define your bases. Identify what your main base of operations is. Is it your home office, a rented office, your employer’s office, or the client’s site?

Step 3: Classify each travel type. Identify which journeys are home-to-regular-workplace commuting and which are business travel (between workplaces, to temporary sites, or to meetings).

Step 4: Choose an expense method. For vehicle costs and home-working costs, decide whether you will use simplified rates or actual costs, based on what is allowed and what is practical for you to track.

Step 5: Set up a tracking system. Use a mileage app, a spreadsheet, or bookkeeping software. The best system is the one you will actually use consistently.

Step 6: Review periodically. Reassess when your work patterns change. A project that was meant to last two months can become a year; that can change the travel analysis.

Practical examples of defensible documentation

Here are examples of the kinds of notes that make an expense claim clearer:

• “Travel to Client A site for project kickoff meeting and on-site data collection. Assignment expected 3 weeks.”

• “Travel between Client B site and Client C site for afternoon workshop. Two workplaces in one day.”

• “Home office used for report writing, invoicing, and client communications. On-site work required only for testing.”

• “Broadband cost apportioned 40% business based on work hours and household usage.”

These notes don’t need to be long. They just need to connect the expense to the business purpose and show that you’re applying a consistent approach.

Key takeaways

Working from both home and a client’s site doesn’t automatically unlock deductions, but it doesn’t automatically block them either. The tax treatment usually turns on whether the travel is ordinary commuting or qualifying business travel, whether your home is a real work base, and whether the client site is temporary or effectively a regular workplace.

To stay on the right side of the rules, focus on three things: be clear about your working pattern, be consistent in how you classify travel and home-working costs, and keep records that explain your decisions. If your engagements change over time, update your approach rather than relying on assumptions from earlier months. A careful, well-documented method will usually put you in a strong position—whether you’re trying to claim what you’re entitled to, or simply trying to avoid unpleasant surprises later.